"Some housing activity will be delayed until spring. At the same
time, we can’t ignore the ongoing headwinds of tight credit,
limited inventory, higher prices and higher mortgage interest
rates. These issues will hinder home sales activity until the
positive factors of job growth and new supply from higher housing
starts begin to make an impact."

Pending home sales, considered a leading indicator for future
existing home sales,
have been falling sharply. This suggests that existing home
sales will be ticking lower.

"The bad news now is that the plunge in the Dec pending home
sales index suggests completed sales have further to fall,
and could drop as low as 4.3M in Feb, down some 20% from
their summer 2013 peak," Ian Shepherdson at Pantheon
Macroeconomics wrote in a note to clients.